FAA warnings lacked details

Published: Saturday, May 18, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP)  Government warnings before Sept. 11 that terrorists might be planning to hijack airplanes were vague and did not require increased security at airports, federal and airline officials say.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued 15 warnings to airlines and airports last year before the terrorist attacks, but did not order direct changes in operations.

"I would not think of it as a warning that gave any credible specificity in terms of that information," Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said Thursday. "It was just general information relating to threats."

Spokesmen for both United Airlines and American Airlines, the two carriers whose planes were hijacked Sept. 11, said all of the warnings lacked specifics.

"During 2001, there were no alerts or cautions that indicated a Sept. 11th scenario was credible or possible," United spokesman Joe Hopkins said.

American said in a statement that "the bulletins were extremely general in nature and did not identify a specific threat or recommend any specific security enhancements."

None of the warnings went to the pilots and flight attendants, union officials said.

"If we're supposed to be looking for suspicious people, we should know we're supposed to be looking for them," said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the Association of Flight Attendants.

Transportation Department officials said they were prohibited by law from releasing the text of the warnings, but provided a summary of the 15 FAA information circulars sent to airports and airlines between January and August. The circulars are either sent over secured lines or posted on a secure Web site.

In April, the FAA sent two warnings to airlines telling them that terrorists might attack U.S. citizens and encouraging them "to practice a high degree of awareness."

At least one FAA alert warned that terrorists might hijack a plane so they could trade the passengers for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, imprisoned for plotting to blow up New York landmarks in 1993, officials said.

"All of this reporting about hijacking was about traditional hijacking," said Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser. "They were mostly worried that they might try to take a plane and use it for release of the blind sheik or some of their own people."

One July warning named Osama bin Laden and said his or other terrorist groups could hijack airplanes, a government official said.

Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo said the FAA should have tightened security at airports in response to the information the agency obtained.

"What they could have done is say, 'We have knowledge of specific threats, anyone not doing their job could be fined or suspended."' said Schiavo, a lawyer who represents the families of 30 passengers on the four planes hijacked Sept. 11. "They give airlines warnings of what they know and the leave them to implement security."

But an advocate for airline passengers said the warnings were too vague to justify increased security.

"Passengers would not have tolerated the kinds of inspections and long lines that we are now going through without the vision of the smoking World Trade Center," said David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association.

Administration officials and aviation experts say they never had any inkling that suicide terrorists would hijack U.S. planes and turn them into missiles.

Such a scenario, for example, never came up during meetings of the FAA's aviation security advisory committee, said Paul Hudson, a member of the panel.

"Even if it had been raised, it would have been viewed as too fantastic, the idea that you would have trained pilots and trained holy warriors ready to commit suicide," said Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, an advocacy group.